Saturday, November 24, 2012

Stuck Or Letting Go?

It feels like slogging through mud sometimes, doesn’t it? You know you shouldn’t be getting sucked down but you are. The world is pulling you in. Spiritually and emotionally you know you should get free but you can’t. You are on one level but there is still that strong pull made evident by the sucking sound every time you lift up your foot.

We have these material bodies that get sick and need comfort. We have food and property, medical bills and school bills. These slam us up against the reality of being aliens and strangers, people that have a house not made with hands. It’s this slamming up against that is so disconcerting. Lift foot from mud, walk, lift foot from mud, walk…that’s how the faith battle feels most days.

That’s why Peter said, “I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them…” Without the reminding it’s easy to sink down into the mud. We don’t feel like we have an inheritance imperishable, undefiled and reserved specially for us. The telephone calls from the bill collectors and our sin nature scream at us and when we look about we just see mud.

When we pull free from the mud Peter reminds us to rejoice. We have to deal with the mud for a little while because, somehow, it proves our faith. At the end of the day mud will turn to faith “that is more precious than gold,” though it be tested by fire.

So we endure the mud. We walk by faith and we remind ourselves and each other that mud isn’t our inheritance. Kept by faith we press on to that which is ours; imperishable, undefiled and reserved.